As you know, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unanimously voted to create the East 10th Street Historic District* on Tuesday. (Perhaps we should include that name with an asterisk because of Ben Shaoul's last-second approval for a rooftop addition at 315 E. 10th St.)
Preservationists are now hoping that the LPC will give another swath of the East Village landmark status as well... an area that takes in some 330 buildings:
The LPC has not placed this item on their calendar just yet.
Today, in an article titled Preservation Push in Bohemian Home Stirs Fear of Hardship, The New York Times reports on the opposition to the landmark protection. Per the article by Joseph Berger:
Almost a dozen houses of worship, including the late-19th-century Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and a crumbling century-old synagogue, argue that they are dependent on donations and that including them in a landmark district would make simple projects like repairing a window or fixing a roof more expensive and bureaucratically time-consuming.
Even worse, it would make their buildings and the valuable property on which they sit much less attractive since developers would be restricted in what they could do.
Now what?